The Darkspear
by Lib Feathers
Summary: A young troll finds his sister has been taken by high elves.  My first attempt at Warcraft - the lore is quite challenging to work with, I welcome suggestions.


The Darkspear

The troll wasn't old enough yet to have earned a real name, but most people referred to him as Hunter. His mother knew if she left him to watch his baby sister, he would make sure the girl had food. He would keep her safe, and he would feed her, and that was what mattered. His mother could take care of her business and not have to worry about her children, even in such a strange land.

He left Aka alone for a few moments while he went after a lynx, but the animal had run faster than he expected, and, severely disappointed, he had to let it go. Hunter would not abandon Aka, even if it meant going without dinner again. He muttered to himself about the impossibility of finding decent game in Eversong Forest as he headed back to his sister. Maybe they could find some berries someplace.

Closer to the trees, he heard voices. Hunter froze, just for an instant, then drew his bow, nocked an arrow, and stealthily moved forward. The voices were coming from the shade trees where he had left Aka.

Then he saw them. Three high elves stood in the shade - one dark-haired male and two females, one brunette and one blonde. The blonde female held Aka in her arms. Hunter had never seen elves this close up before, but they were every bit as delicate and small as they had looked from a distance. Hunter was taller than the females already, still with years of growing ahead of him, and only a few inches shorter than the male. He could handle them. Hunter raised the bow and leapt from the shadows.

"Put her down!" he screamed.

The elves turned. Aka burbled at him and smiled. "Hi," she said.

"Put - her - down!" Hunter repeated, spitting out each word with deliberation.

The elves spoke to each other in their own language, then the dark-haired female addressed Hunter with words he could not comprehend. Her voice was solid, strong, unafraid, but he had no idea what she said.

"You put my sista down," he said again, bow still raised, ready to let the arrow fly.

The dark female seemed to ask him a question. He glared. Why did they not obey when he was armed? And why was Aka not fighting them? She was still very young but already she was strong and smart. Their mother had warned them both to stay away from the elves. Aka should know that much. Had they cast some spell over her to keep her placid?

"Hi," Aka said again.

"Aka," Hunter responded. He lowered the bow a fraction of an inch. "Why you stay wit' them? Get down and come to me now."

She smiled and patted the elf's pale hair. "Nice."

They must have charmed her. "I tol' you to put my sista down. Now!"

The elves consulted each other again, and then the male spoke. He offered Hunter a waterskin which the troll refused to even acknowledge. Hunter realized they must have given Aka some of the water. It must be tainted. He had to get her away from them. He could fire two arrows in no time at all, take out the dark-haired ones, and that would leave only the blonde who held Aka. Hunter straightened up to his full height and puffed out his chest. He was a Darkspear. The son of a warrior. He was not afraid of these puny elves, and they should be quaking in fear of him. Why did they stand there so calmly?

The male elf gestured toward the land behind them and spoke more words Hunter could not understand. He moved a few steps away and the females went with him. Then they stopped, the male gestured again and repeated the words.

"What you want?" Hunter demanded. "I don' know what you sayin'."

The male shrugged. He said something else to the females, and then the elves turned their backs on Hunter and started away, his baby sister still perched on the female's hip.

"No! You cannot take her!" Hunter raised his bow again and pulled back the arrow.

Suddenly his vision blurred. His arms and legs tingled, and the bow slipped away from his fingers. When his sight cleared, the ground was oddly close to his face. And there was something wrong with his nose. It seemed shorter and strangely shaped. He tried to reach up to touch his nose but as he moved one hand, he fell flat on his face. It wasn't a hand at all. It was a cloven hoof at the end of a leg covered with curly white fur.

Blind with anger, Hunter struggled to get to his feet. One of the elves was a mage. Leave it to elves to pull such a dirty trick. They would regret turning him into a sheep. He would see to that. He shook his distorted body, hard, trying to shake off the spell even though he knew it did no good. He would just have to wait for it to wear off. Meanwhile, he managed to focus his vision enough to see the elves still walking away from him. He tried to follow them but could only totter in uneven circles. Finally his vision blurred again, another quick tingling ran through him, and then he was flat on the ground in his own familiar lanky troll body.

Snatching up his bow, Hunter ran after the elves and seized the arm of the female who carried Aka. "You don' take my sista!"

The dark-haired female calmly stretched her hand out toward the boy and spoke again in that unintelligible language.

Hunter released his grip. This female must be the mage who sheeped him, and her words sounded like a warning that she would do it again. Hunter glared at her and cussed her out roundly.

The light-haired female, shifting his sister slightly on her hip, smiled gently but her emerald eyes seemed empty. Elves' eyes did not even have pupils, and that worried Hunter. There was something not right about the whole race. Stealing babies and giving them tainted water? They all needed to be exterminated.

The blonde elf spoke softly, and with her free hand indicated that he should follow them. Then the elves continued walking.

Hunter ranted till he had run out of cuss words. There was nothing he could say that would equal the incomprehensible horror of what they were doing. His mother would never stand for this disgrace, and he could not, either. One hand reached for an arrow but he did not actually touch it. He knew what would happen if he did. Instead he threw his arms out to the side, opened his mouth wide, and emitted a wordless ear-splitting screech into the empty air.

The elves did not show enough decency to even flinch. Aka, however, turned her head back to look over the elf's shoulder at him. She waved her chubby blue hand in his direction.

"C'mon," she said. "C'mon."

Tears tried to come to his eyes but he gritted his teeth and forced them away. "Aka!" he cried out.

He had little choice but to follow the elves.


End file.
